Denice R. Preston
Collaboration is more prevalent than ever before, which is why professionals working in finance need spreadsheet software which can keep up. Google Sheets is ideal for our current working environment.
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By Stefan Thelin
Stefan serves as the director of data-driven Insights and Analytics for Cargotec the leading supplier of solutions for loading and cargo. He also has served as an M&A director and startup CFO as well as led financial analysis and modeling as an leveraged finance manager in the Royal Bank of Scotland.
When it first launched in 1985 in 1985, Excel from Microsoft Excel was able to grown to become the preferred spreadsheet application among financial professionals. And, without doubt, it’s an effective tool. There are many reasons that have kept it in popularity over the years. But the rapid growth of cloud computing, specifically in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the rapid increase in the volume of information businesses store have altered our working practices perhaps for ever.
In today’s cloud-based, collaborative workplace is the place where benefits of Google Sheets truly stand out. Yet, there are plenty of professionals from the business and finance fields with Excel spreadsheets who still using Excel spreadsheets similar to the way that we learned during the pre-cloud era as well as those who changed towards Microsoft’s cloud-based Microsoft 365.
In the year 2016 the manufacturing of industrial machinery firm I manage the financial data analytics has taken the major move of transferring all of its employees over to Google’s G Suite, now Google Workspace, joining the growing number of companies that have made the change from Excel. Therefore I’ve used Google Sheets almost daily since when I was an instructor-led expert in its capabilities and creative methods to work. I’ve utilized Google Sheets to build discounted cash flow models for major acquisitions, to oversee complicated integration tasks, to aid in analysis and financial planning and, often, to substitute for a whiteboard whenever I need to draw something for an online conference.
In this post I will discuss some of the benefits from Google Sheets, highlighting the features that have significantly enhanced my productivity. I also give an overview of Google Apps Script an extremely powerful tool to assist in automation of workflows and further extending Google Sheets’ functionality.
However, I do not present a head-tohead feature matchup of Excel against Google Sheets as the functions change rapidly that an analysis will be outdated within a matter of weeks. Instead, I concentrate specifically on Google Sheets’ advantages and the innovative ways to work that rise the online tool for productivity has provided. I also address some of the downsides that come with the transition from Microsoft.
The Advantages of Google Sheets
The primary benefits Google Sheets has over Excel is seamless collaboration as well as the ability to handle massive data and project sets, thanks to its integration with BigQuery as well as the possibility of automation through Google Apps Script. While Excel and other spreadsheets also provide the same capabilities, Google has made them user-friendly and intuitive which even reticent finance professionals are able to quickly learn the basics and begin to see tangible results.
Easy Collaboration
One of the primary benefits of Sheets is the capability to collaborate easily. In the past, when working, you’d make use of an original master file that you needed access to “own,” which was (in the ideal scenario) stored in a network shared folder or meticulously sent between users.
However, Sheets incorporates several modes of collaboration, which range from asynchronous collaboration, where the collaborators work in isolation and generally at different times in the same file — to real-time collaborative editing. If you are editing synchronously you can make use of the comment feature to notify users to any concerns or questions and assign them tasks you can label as completed when they’ve completed the task.
Chips that are HTML0 give quick access to information at the fingertips of users without having to exit the document. For instance, people chips can identify the person who is accountable for specific tasks and offer their contact information, whereas calendar and file event chips provide context and other resources available. In conjunction along with their timeline view function that allows users to display time-related information smart chips create Sheets an excellent tool not just for financial analysis, but it also serves as a hub to organize details and activities, which includes the entire scope of projects.
Google smart chips enable users to find contacts and other relevant documents in just a single click.
Working on a spreadsheet in real time alongside coworkers is an extremely effective method to work. The efficiency of two or three individuals who are all skilled in using Google Sheets quickly building out an operating or operational or financial model in real-time is quite impressive in comparison to the traditional method of working. The numerous cursors of different colors that move across the screen simultaneously to create a model appear like a time-lapse film of an artwork being made.
There’s room for various kinds of participants. Not everyone is capable of editing spreadsheets for instance. Options for view-only and comment-only protect data integrity and ensure security while providing access to those who require it.
Built-in Version Control
If you’ve ever experienced the agonizing experience of the spreadsheet crashing beyond repair which results in the loss of hours of work You may have gotten into an habit of backing up your files often. This can be fine, if it is cumbersome for a individual however, when several versions of a file are circulated among colleagues and a person forgets to update the file’s name, chaos may ensue.
Google Workspace makes it possible to keep just one document for the entire duration of your project due the built-in tracking of version numbers. Available through “See version history” in the menu, this feature lets you to track all edits made to the document via a simple timeline. It also displays names of those responsible for each modification. Each change is recorded and it is possible to “rewind” to any previous time in the life of the file from when it was initially created. Not just that, for each cell, you can choose “Show edit history” and return to each edit to determine who made the changes, when and at what value.
This feature is accessible to all Google Workspace user. Microsoft users will require either SharePoint, or OneDrive to be able to access the versions history for Excel.
